Frequently Asked Questions

What does the Association of Authors' Agents do?

The Association is a voluntary body to provide a forum for member agencies to discuss industry matters, to uphold a code of good practice, and to provide a vehicle for representing the interests of agents and authors. Our members have each practiced as literary agents for a period of three years or more, are based in the UK, have a list of clients who are actively engaged in writing, and abide by a code of practice as detailed on this website.

I am a new writer, looking for advice on how to go about getting published. Can you help?

As we are a voluntary trade body, we are sadly unable to operate as an information service to the public. If you require general information about how to go about getting published or finding representation by an agent, we recommend that you consult a copy of either The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook published by A&C Black or The Writer's Handbook published by Macmillan, which you should be able to obtain from any book shop or online. Both of these books list agents and publishers in the UK and Ireland as well as abroad, with some information about the material that each is looking for and an indication of whether or not they will receive unsolicited work. They give guidelines for the submission of material and describe the role of a literary agent.

I am a new writer looking for an agent who represents writers in a specific genre. Can you tell me who to approach?

We do not hold a database of our members' specific areas of interest or of their clients, so we are unable to route enquiries of this kind, and unfortunately there's no easy answer to this. Listings in both the Writer's Handbook and the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook (AAA members are marked with an asterisk) give some information about the kind of writing that each agency represents, in some cases listing their major clients. (These books also provide a separate listing of those agencies which represent children's books.) For further information about our member agencies, please contact them direct.

I have a query relating to a specific author or title...

The Association of Authors' Agents is not itself a body which represents clients. For specific queries, you need to identify the relevant agent and contact them direct. Contact details can be found through our Directory of Members.

Can you tell me who represents a specific author?

We do not hold a database of this kind of information. Please contact the Society of Authors or the ALCS (see Useful Contacts below), or the publisher of that writer's most recent book, who should be able to help you.

I am trying to contact one of your members...

Please go to the Directory of Members link on our homepage. Some of our members prefer to be contacted by post rather than by email, so email addresses are not always provided.

Useful Contacts:

If you need assistance finding the right agent to answer your query, or need general advice, the following organisations will be able to offer you some assistance: